82 Pish^ Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 



of the state the trout fishing, througrh borders and incidentals, forms an 

 important part of the revenue. Apart from this, the sporting goods in- 

 dustry in the cities and towns of the state by this means are largely in- 

 creased. 



Trout fishing in Pennsylvania, by reason of the picturesque surround- 

 ings, tends to instil in the hearts of those engaging, a greater love for 

 nature and her works than in most sections of the union. Even the 

 backwoodsman who loves the "gentle art" for the arts sake, becomes 

 thereby enobled. 



A good specimen of this class of men is Philip B. Clark, a justice of 

 the peace of one of the townships of Pike county, and every angler who 

 has beaten streams in that or other sections of the state, must acknowl- 

 edge having met many of his type. His mind is stored with a wonder- 

 ful amount of useful and out-of-the-way information. Some of it he 

 gathered from state and government reports, but the greater part came 

 from the woods in which he has lived all his life. From generous na- 

 ture he has drawn his choicest knowledge, and he delights to impart 

 his gleanings to others. He has a boundless love for aU plant and ani- 

 mal life, except snakes and noxious insects, which he classes under the 

 general term of "divils." More than once when the writer has been 

 out with him on a stream, he has known the 'Squire to drop his rod, even 

 when the trout were jumping in numbers, to expatiate a moment on the 

 habits of some woodland flower or the beauties of the scenery. 



The trout streams of Pennsylvania are divided into what are known 

 as the northern and the southern tier. Those tributary to the north 

 and west branches of the Susquehanna river, to the Clarion and the Al- 

 legheny, the Delaware, Lehigh and Schuylkill belong to the former, and 

 the remainder to the latter. Of the trout waters in the northern tier, 

 those situated in Pike county are perhaps the best known; no pen can 

 aptly describe the beauty of this region, the greater part of it covered 

 by virgin forests, and the whole a mass of picturesque mountains of 

 the Blue Eidge range, the taUest of which is High Knob near Blooming 

 Grove, a peak which thrusts its bald head nearly three thousand feet 

 above sea level. On every mountain side in the county, through every 

 valley flow countless streams filled to repletion with speckled trout, and 

 it is believed that no amotmt of fishing could clean the waters of them. 

 The largest stream flowing through this section is the Big Bushkill, a 

 noble stream which empties into the Delaware river, and is of such a 

 size that for several miles above it mouth is considered good rafting 

 waters. It has numerous tributaries nearly all of which have their rise 

 in deep Cypress Swamps, so that the waters are colored a dark brown, 

 and seem much deeper than they reaUy are. All their tributaries, as 

 well as the Big Bushkill itself, are splendid fishing brooks and many 

 are widely known, and are famous resorts for New Yorkers, numbers of 

 whom stop at Porter's pond, and Cartright's, at Twelve Mile pond where 



